


The Stars Never Rise

by savanting



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Ben Solo Needs A Hug, F/M, Fix-It, Fix-It of Sorts, Force Ghost Ben Solo, Force Ghost Sex, Grief/Mourning, One Shot, Oral Sex, Post-Canon, Post-Canon Fix-It, Post-Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Rey Needs A Hug, Short One Shot, kissing fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-23
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:28:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25530613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/savanting/pseuds/savanting
Summary: Loving a ghost is perhaps the hardest thing Rey has ever done. One-Shot.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 1
Kudos: 21





	The Stars Never Rise

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Star Wars in any way, shape, or form. And what was going to be a make-out fic became...this weird amalgam of grief and sexing with a ghost. Huh. Like I said, it’s weird, but don’t say I didn’t warn you! Enjoy!
> 
> Title comes from lines in the poem "Annabel Lee" by Edgar Allan Poe

No matter how long Rey held her hand over Ben’s chest, she felt no warmth or beat or thrum. He may as well have just been an object rather than a being with a conscious and a sense of purpose. The Force was the only thing that allowed her to touch him this way, and it was her will that gave her the illusion of his touch.

“Don’t,” he murmured, and her eyes flashed to meet his. He may as well have been a void — except for the immense sadness in his voice. The same emotion he did not want her to see or hear, yet she could feel it all the same through what phantom tatters remained of their bond. “Don’t pity me, Rey.”

The smile she wore was more for him than herself — or that’s what she told herself, anyway. “You would never forgive me if I pitied you,” she said, voice soft, and her fingertips brushed a lock of hair away from his forehead. But even that was just her power surging forth and giving him a physical presence. His own connection to the Force hung by barely a thread, and she knew there was only so long she could see him tonight before he blinked out of existence, gone until an undetermined time when he would reappear out of the ether. Time no longer existed for him the way it did for her. And she wondered — would the day come when she had waited so long for him that she was gnarled and gray, while he stood ever-youthful, his eyes wells of eternity that would leave her behind to dust at some point?

 _Don’t think on it,_ she told herself. _Just take this moment for what it is. Feel, live, and just be._

Ben still stared at her, his expression unreadable, and she pressed her palms against either side of his face. He opened his mouth, but she wouldn’t hear his platitudes tonight. _”Let me go,”_ he might say. _”Live without me. Stop holding on.”_ Nonsense. Now that she had found him, what remained of him, how could he ever think she would abandon him?

Rey was the only one alive left who cared whether Ben Solo, ghost or not, still existed. That meant something to her. And she wouldn’t hear of goodbyes or endings tonight.

Against his open mouth Rey pressed her lips, taking him in slowly at first, then more hungrily and urgently. Kissing him was the only time things felt right, normal, as if he still had his own flesh bound to gravity and the galaxy. His mouth was hot, or so she imagined it — or made it so herself — and his lips began to trail away to her neck. The time for discussion over his ghostly trappings and their finite limit was put away for another night. Who knew, after all, how long they could lose themselves in the time she spent alone in her quarters, away from duties and meetings and the slow restoration of a republic, until morning when he was gone, as if he were just the remnants of a dream that felt only too real.

“What’s wrong?” Ben murmured against her skin, and she realized with a start that she had been lost in her head again. And she also realized that she could no longer feel his touch against her skin. Her only acknowledgement had been to the sound of his voice — not pressure, not heat.

Rey could have been standing in this room alone, and that scared her more than anything.

She quickly shook her head, stepping back to smile up at him as he looked down at her with worry. “Sorry,” she said. “Just feeling tired.”

His eyes widened. “If my being here is making you expend too much energy—“

Rey pressed her fingertips to his lips — and, thank goodness, she could now feel their velvet texture again. It was only a slip, that was all. She felt a burst of welcome relief. “Maybe we should lie down.”

Ben was quiet as she led him to her bed, and he sank onto the edge as he waited for her to settle into the sheets first. But she stood apart from him and, his eyes still upon her every move, began to unwrap the sashes of her outfit. That night she had attended a council dinner with every politician in the galaxy — or so it felt like — and Rose had commissioned a nearly sheer gown that showed off Rey’s figure more than the young Jedi usually felt comfortable with. But she was glad for it now with the way it was so easy to slip off, puddling to the floor in a hush of fabric.

Ben watched her, studying her almost, but said nothing. She stepped into the space between his legs and imagined a warm embrace to envelop her.

But then his eyes met hers, and there was agony there. “Rey, I don’t know if I can be what you need me to be,” he said. “Not like — not like this, how I am now—“

She pressed her face against his temple, her lips brushing his cheek. “You are everything I need you to be, now and always.”

His breath trembled — a memory of life that even Force ghosts could not shake entirely — and she allowed herself to feel the wetness of his tears and taste them against her tongue. It seemed a shame, that a ghost could cry and no one would ever know unless he sobbed in front of a crowd of onlookers.

She did not have to think of pressure or texture as her mouth trailed away from his cheek to brush against his nose, his upper lip, the hollow of his neck. And she felt him swallow, as if her touch brought him the necessary heat he craved. He had whispered to her once that he had never imagined it would be so cold, to be a ghost.

Ben Solo had never thought of death until the moment had been right upon him, and then it had been too late.

Her kisses always made him bolder, and he unpinned her hair — when the moments were right, such small miracles happened without her express notice — and it tumbled around her shoulders. It had been a long while since she had worn her three-bun style because she had so little time in the mornings, but when it came to their nighttime escapades, it was always easier for Ben to unclasp or unpin her hair than undo an elaborate hairstyle. If she lingered in the thought of how hard it usually was for him to touch her just the way she wanted — well, she would have focused more on the sadness than just the comfort of being with him in any form.

 _Stop,_ she told herself as his hands stroked down her back, his mouth lighting sparks across her shoulders. _Stop thinking. Just be with him._

“Rey,” Ben murmured, so soft, like a sigh, and she was brought back to herself.

“Mm?” It was all sound as her breath hitched, his mouth finding her sensitive breast. It was easiest, when she was aroused, to make sure she felt everything he did during these stolen moments. Maybe the bridge between Force users, living and dead, was thinnest when two bodies were to meet.

His hand cupped her buttock. “You don’t have to try so hard,” he said as his lips brushed a tender kiss across her abdomen. “Our connection may not be as strong as it once was, given the circumstances, but I can still make sure you feel everything.”

Rey touched his chin and tilted his head up so she could see his face. For once she felt like she wasn’t only nudging him into action or simply willing him to move like a puppet. “Is that a challenge?”

A sly smile graced his lips. “Lie down.”

She complied, crawling onto the bed until she was lying with her head nestled back on one of the pillows. She didn’t feel entirely assured until Ben reentered her line of vision, leaning into her space and his hand touching her knee.

“Open your legs,” he said, and she felt a shiver of anticipation course through her.

“Is that a command?” she asked, a mock tone of defiance in her voice, but he just shook his head, laughing at her. No matter what their roles had once been in a war among the stars, their once-oppositional dynamic had yet to make a successful take in the matter of intimacy. They were too new to their bodies joining, and — if Rey were honest — they were just too flustered to make that kind of play work without it devolving into sarcasm.

After a moment where Rey fought her own laugh, she spread her legs and closed her eyes. Another moment later, and she felt welcome heat to join against hers — his breath pooling against her inner thigh, a soft kiss brushing against the skin there to which she was all too aware.

Then Ben showed her how his tongue still could break the barrier of Force magnitude, ghost or not. As he worked his mouth against her, she clenched her fingers into the sheets. Her back arched, her head pressing back into the pillow, and she couldn’t stop a moan from spilling from her mouth. She wouldn’t have been surprised if he had even smiled, triumphant, to hear her losing herself slowly, piece by piece, as he unraveled her from the inside out.

_Say my name._

Rey’s eyes flashed opened. She hadn’t heard Ben’s voice in her head since — since — she couldn’t even remember —

_Rey. I want to hear you say my name._

Her body writhed in succession with how his tongue moved against her inner core. None of this was her doing. The Force wasn’t moving out of her to act as his conduit. This was — this was —

“Ben!” she gasped out, the orgasm and her surprise culminating into one.

The next thing she knew, Ben — hers, Force ghost and all — pressed a wet kiss against her thigh. “Don’t sound so shocked.”

Her heartbeat thrummed in her ears, but she could hear every word he said inside her head — more miracles. “What other tricks have you been teaching yourself?” she asked as she tried to regain her composure.

_Shall I show you?_

The voice was teasing — and all Ben.

Rey grinned. “I think that goes without saying.”

Her lover may have still been a Force ghost, but there were still surprises — and hope — left to go around. And that would be enough.


End file.
